2002 was a remarkable year for the 70-year-old John Williams, with scores for four of the year's biggest films. Attack of the Clones was a step-up from its predecessor in terms of the film and the music, and included the year's standout piece of film music, the love theme "Across the Stars"; Minority Report was a brilliant (and well-scored) Steven Spielberg film, though Williams's score was far less engaging on CD; the score for Harry Potter 2 was considerably more varied and entertaining than that for the first film; and the year ended up with Williams's second Spielberg score, Catch Me If You Can. With an all-star cast (Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Sheen, Christopher Walken), the movie has already notched up a fair take at the box office.

It's certainly a departure for the composer, the film clearly not demanding his usual larger-than-life approach to the director's films. In common with Minority Report, it doesn't have an especially strong theme. The opening track is based on the smallest fragment of melody, hypnotic and enticing, repeated countless times through the score. "The Float", the album's second piece, is probably the strongest track, with a breezy air about it that leaves you wanting to listen to it over and over.

Much though it does mark a change of pace for Williams, I'm very surprised by how this music has turned out. For what is ostensibly a light comedy, the music is anything but light: a few moments aside, much of it is in fact pretty dark and certainly serious. I don't think there's really a single moment of the score that suggests either the period or nature of the film, which is most unusual. Instead it is up to the songs on the album, from Sinatra to Springfield, to suggest the period.

Another unusual thing is how rambling the music seems to be: far from Williams's usual tight, highly-controlled style, several of the cues seem to flit from one idea to another with no real clearly defined sense of direction (something that may, of course, be entirely correct given the nature of the film, but which doesn't really make for the best listening).

Interviews with Williams have all centred around the score being a return to his 1960s style, of which I see no evidence. There are two pretty obviously direct ancestors, and oddly enough they are both The Thomas Crown Affair: the jazzier elements of Michel Legrand's music for the original and a couple of moments from Bill Conti's score for the remake are strikingly similar, with rather more dour material thrown in alongside them. It's hardly an especially strong score and certainly not a memorable one, but it does take hold of the listener in a curious way and its incredibly repetitive nature means that the source music being interspersed with the score is a very good move. I doubt that this one will end up being played too often, but it does make an intriguing and, at times, enjoyable listen.

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